Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a system for providing cloud-based UIs which reuses a UI object stored in a subscriber terminal device to render a scene for a user interactive input, and a method therefor.
Description of the Related Art
The current broadcasting environment including technology development trends and business trends of pay-TV broadcasters is changing to an Internet-based environment or a hybrid type partially combined with an Internet-based environment.
In addition, consumption patterns for media have diversified due to the emergence of various smart access devices and new advanced technologies, such HTML5 and UHD, have emerged. Accordingly, there are capital requirements such as purchase of a high-performance Set-Top Box (STB), reorganization of User Interface (UI)/User Experience (UX), development of new services, and upgrade of a head-end system. Such capital requirements are a burden on pay-TV broadcasters.
Pay-TV broadcasters are constantly trying to develop technologies to meet changing trends so as to have a competitive edge over existing pay-TV broadcasters or new media operators such as Over-The-Top (OTT) operators, Google TV, and Apple TV.
Accordingly, pay-TV broadcasters are replacing their existing set-top boxes with high-performance models, adding Internet-based services, and analyzing various viewer needs to add recommendation, search, and personalization functions, are applying multi-screen technology that enables media consumption in various devices, and are investing in photography, editing, encoder, and network equipment to provide UHD-quality video beyond HD.
However, it is difficult to simultaneously replace existing head-end systems and set-top boxes that have been made through large-scale investment, either in financial terms or in terms of time. That is, it took considerable time and cost for the existing broadcasting system to provide real-time broadcast, VoD, and other interactive services, and it is costly to develop a service that can meet customer's demands.
There is a need for a technology capable of solving the problems faced by pay broadcasting companies, breaking away from the existing one-way broadcasting environment, and providing consistent UI/UX to various set-top boxes and media devices utilizing the advantages of the two-way broadcasting environment. In addition, there is a need for a technology capable of providing Internet-based services (social networking, recommendation, search, personalization) and facilitating complex UI/UX change and test for each set-top box model.
According to such need, technologies capable of providing UIs from a cloud-based server to a subscriber device have been proposed. However, due to the nature of a computing process of the cloud-based server, problems such as increased bandwidth and server load for processing have occurred.
In addition, when a session connection is not smooth due to a communication failure between a cloud-based server and a subscriber device, there is a problem that a user cannot be provided with a smooth service.
To address the problems of the related art, a cloud-based UI provision system through generation of a cloud-based control command has been developed. The cloud-based UI provision system using a control command system receives content and UI resources from a media storage in a subscriber terminal device having received a control command and controls rendering of the received content and UI resources, thereby addressing load reduction and communication trouble in a cloud server.
Further, to increase efficiency of a cloud-based UI provision system in a control command manner, development of a technique for reducing a transmission amount of a control command has been developed in recent years.